Students encourage genocide prevention
By Emily Harwood
Writer
This week marked the University’s first Genocide Prevention Week, hosted by STAND, the student anti-genocide coalition founded this spring on campus. The week was packed with many efforts to raise awareness and fundraising.
“The week-long campaign will honor the past, urge action now on Darfur, and seek to create a global call for a mass atrocity prevention system. We hope to raise awareness on campus about crimes against humanity occurring throughout the world, and raise funds to go towards two special nonprofits,” said Christine Yaged ’09, president of STAND.
This week’s activities include the selling of Blood: Water Bracelets to benefit Blood: Water Mission, which builds health clinics and wells in Africa, the selling of sweatshop-free Darfur shirts, a “Darfur Dollar Exchange,” a screening of “Boy in the Striped Pajamas” to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, a speech by “Lost Boy of Sudan” Abraham Awolich, and the dissemination of a reading list presenting the historical realities and human tragedies of genocide, “Books of Conscience.”
Along with organizing the Genocide Prevention Week, during the year, STAND sold Blood: Water Bracelets and petitioned Congress and President Barack Obama “to make the violence against women in the DR Congo a bigger priority,” Yaged said.
The positive support for STAND’s Genocide Prevention Week from both students and faculty has been widespread, club members said.
“The feedback that I have gotten about this week has been all very positive,” club member Christine Prendergast ’11 said. “I have e-mailed my teachers about this week and have received multiple responses all with great enthusiasm and willingness to help.”
Even though the majority of the University supports STAND’s efforts, there are those doubting the effectiveness of Genocide Prevention Week.
“A couple students have pessimistically noted that ‘one week will not stop genocide,’ but my response to that is ‘Well, at least we are doing something, and not just standing by letting it go on unnoticed.’ The fact that STAND members are taking time out of their busy lives to try to make a difference is more than a lot of Bucknell students, who claim they care about global events and human rights, can say,” Yaged said.
Despite those who doubt this week’s efforts, the University has come out and voiced support for the students’ efforts.
Tom Evelyn, director of media relations at the University added, “Bucknell supports and encourages any efforts by students to create dialogue and bring attention to important global issues. The University has a proud tradition of its students getting involved, and events like Genocide Prevention Week help engage the campus community in discussions that enhance the learning experience for students, faculty and others.”
